Method and device for managing subscriber connection

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a device for managing a subscriber connection, the device including a mechanism for granting connection services to the subscriber connection, mechanism for monitoring reception behavior concerning predetermined messages conveyed to the subscriber connection, and a mechanism for controlling a further connection service grant to the subscriber connection based on the reception behavior.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of priority to InternationalPatent Application No. PCT/FI2006/050466 filed 27 Oct. 2006, thecontents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

FIELD

The invention relates to a method for managing a subscriber connectionand a device for managing a subscriber connection.

BACKGROUND

Mobile marketing and advertising are considered as a channel to reachconsumers by utilizing assets and characteristics of mobile media,namely individuality and attainability. Today's mobile marketing ismostly based on push campaigns or pull campaigns that acquire consumers'mobile phone numbers.

An example of a push campaign is a short message service (SMS) campaignwhere an advertisement is sent to a group of consumers using SMS.

An example of a pull campaign is a “text-to-win” campaign, wherein anarticle contains a code which a consumer may send to a telephone numberused for the campaign and, as a return, he or she receives anotification of a possible price. Furthermore, the consumer receivesmarketing messages.

Prior art advertising sponsored subscriber connections oblige thesubscriber first to receive advertisements, after which free connectiontime is granted. This is carried out to prevent subscribers from firstusing free connection time and then terminating the usage of theconnection and never receiving advertisements.

A problem is that the prior art method is not a client-friendly approachto a target group of an advertiser. Subscribers may experience this kindof advertising too restrictive and compulsive which does not create apositive attitude to advertisements and to the commodities theyadvertise.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a method formanaging a subscriber connection, the method comprising: grantingconnection services to the subscriber connection; monitoring receptionbehaviour concerning predetermined messages conveyed to the subscriberconnection; and controlling a further connection service grant to thesubscriber connection based on the reception behaviour.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a devicefor managing a subscriber connection, the device comprising means forgranting connection services to the subscriber connection; means formonitoring reception behaviour concerning predetermined messagesconveyed to the subscriber connection; and means for controlling afurther connection service grant to the subscriber connection based onthe reception behaviour.

The invention provides several advantages.

In an embodiment of the invention, a free or discounted service isgranted typically for a predetermined period of time and the behaviourof a subscriber is monitored. If he or she has not received and/orreacted to messages in a predetermined way during the period, he or sheis no longer granted a free or discounted service. This approach is aclient-friendly way of mobile marketing simultaneously minimizing theeconomical risk involved in messages left unread.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail withreference to embodiments and the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 shows an example of a communications network;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an arrangement according to anembodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a management unit.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Delivering advertisements according to embodiments of the invention istypically carried out in a communications network. Some examples of thecommunications networks are a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System(UMTS) radio access network (UTRAN), Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) and its modifications, Wireless Local Area Network(WLAN), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX),Bluetooth®, Personal Communications Services (PCS) and systems usingultra-wideband (UWB) technology.

A variety of message types can be used in embodiments of the invention:the messages may be Short Message Service (SMS) messages, multimediamessages (such as Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) messages),Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) messages, WAP-push messages,messages in a broadcasting format (examples of such formats are DigitalVideo Broadcasting for Handheld devices (DVB-H), Integrated ServicesDigital Broadcasting (ISDB), Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)) andmessages conveyed via the Internet, etc. FIG. 1 is a simplifiedillustration of a system to which embodiments according to the inventionare applicable. The system of FIG. 1 is presented as a clarifyingexample. It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that theembodiments of the invention may be applied to different kinds ofsystems. FIG. 1 shows a part of a WCDMA (Wide Band Code DivisionMultiple Access) communications network. The WCDMA network is takenherein as an example of a communications network providing mobility.

The WCDMA communications network is a cellular radio system whichcomprises a base station 100, which has bi-directional radio links 102,104 to user devices 106, 108. A user device may be a mobile phone, alaptop or a multimedia device, for instance.

The base station is connected to a radio network controller (or node B)108 which, in turn, has a connection to a core network 110. Equipmentneeded for advertising, such as a billing system and delivery managementmay be placed in the core network. In the following, and embodiment of amethod for managing a subscriber connection is explained in furtherdetail by means of FIG. 2. The embodiment starts in block 200.

It should be noticed that in this application, free in relation toconnection services, etc. means in addition to free, also discounted orsubsidized prices for some or all connection services.

In block 202, connection services are granted to a subscriberconnection.

Typically, a subscriber obtains free or discounted connection time, suchas talk time, and/or a right to send free messages, such as shortmessage service (SMS) messages, data connection usage of a certainamount of data for such generic data services like the Internet orelectronic mail, free content services such as videos, televisioncontents, music, applications, games, WAP pages, Internet pages, ringingtones, wall papers, etc. The service provider, i.e. a party who offersmobile marketing or other similar kind of messaging services, typicallyuses a prepaid system of a communications network which is used formessage delivery. Prepaid systems are known in the prior art and theyare not explained herein. The method is simultaneously operable in aplurality of communications network, in which case one billing system istypically selected for use.

A connection service grant may be talk time, 20 minutes for instance,free of charge or at a discounted price. Talk time may also be used fordata delivery. It is also possible to grant a quota of talk time and anumber of free messages to be delivered for instance in domesticcommunications networks.

In block 204, reception behaviour concerning predetermined messagesconveyed in the subscriber connection is monitored.

The messages are typically marketing messages, such as different kindsof advertisements.

The monitoring of the receiving behaviour may be carried out in manyways, such as by monitoring a subscriber's opening, viewing orforwarding of messages, answering queries or completing a predeterminedtask, such as collecting product codes and forwarding them to themessage delivery system or to the advertiser.

Usually, an advertiser orders a marketing campaign, where advertisementsare delivered to consumers' user devices, such as mobile phones ormultimedia devices. An advertiser may be a person, a group of persons, acompany, a civil service department, etc.

Campaign material (including texts, images, sounds videos, hypertextmarkup language (html), tags, links, etc.) is typically designed by anadvertising agency. The advertising campaign material may be amultimedia message, a video, a text message, etc. The advertisertypically defines a target group for the campaign.

Once a subscriber performs a predetermined action, such as opening anadvertisement, the action is monitored. Information on such aperformance can be obtained from a subscriber terminal, communicationsnetwork infrastructure, from a shop where a coupon has been used or fromsome other sources. The information on the performance typicallyincludes a subscriber identity code and an advertisement identity codein order to identify both the subscriber and the marketing messagesuccessfully delivered (opened, query answered, etc.). A monitoringperiod may vary according to current needs. A monitoring period may alsobe divided into shorter periods.

In block 206, a further connection service grant to the subscriberconnection is controlled on the basis of the reception behaviour.

The amount of further connection service grant may vary, depending onfor instance the speed of response, type of campaign (a campaign can bevalued in such a way that opening messages of this particular campaignproduce more talk time than opening messages of another campaign, forexample), customer type (key, incidental or new customer, etc.),historical data on the behaviour of a subscriber, the type of response,such as level of subscriber activity (for instance, more free servicetime for a subscriber who answered all questions asked in anadvertisement, less free service time for one who only opened theadvertisement), performance of a purchasing event or forwarding amessage to other person or group of persons, etc.

The amount of further connection service grant can also depend on how asubscriber has used a previous connection service grant (for consumerswho only use, for instance text messaging services, a further connectionservice grant can include more text messaging services than otherservices). The type of further connection service grant can depend on asubscriber's response pattern as well. For example, if a subscriberwatches sent video advertisements, he or she can be awarded videowatching time as a further connection service grant.

Conditions for further service grants are typically determined before anadvertisement campaign takes place.

A further service granting is typically carried out periodically orafter a predetermined event, such as answering questions presented in anadvertisement or using a coupon.

Further service grant may also be called a refill. Additionally, anoption exists that a subscriber may be offered some other benefits thana further connection service grant for the receiving behaviour, such asmoney or monetary value commodities. The embodiment ends in block 208.The embodiment may be repeated in several different ways. Typically,each subscriber is granted an amount of connection services free ofcharge when a subscriber connection is delivered. Then, depending on thebehaviour of the subscriber, he or she may be granted more freeconnection services. The subscriber connection may also be closed.

Next, an example further clarifying an embodiment of the method formanaging a subscriber connection is explained. Numerical examples aredepicted only for clarity and they do not limit the scope of protection.

In the example, subscribers have an amount of free services to startwith. The subscribers are recompensed for viewing marketing messagesevery week. A recompense takes place if they have opened the messages.

If the subscriber opens 3 advertisements (marketing messages) a day, aservice provider grants him or her 60 minutes of domestic voice callsand 50 domestic SMS messages every month, free of charge. It should benoticed that an embodiment may also provide an option to offer anadvertiser information on the course of his marketing campaign.Subscribers may also make inquiries about the situation of their freeconnection services by using a mobile phone or other appropriate means.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an arrangement according to anembodiment of the invention.

The arrangement typically uses the same billing system 300 as is used byan operator of a communications network uses for its own billing. Thebilling may also be carried out in a way used by the operator uses inits billing, for instance subtracting spent money from a pre-paidaccount. The arrangement further includes a management unit 302 whichstores information on subscriber account types, rules for carrying outfurther connection service granting, status of subscribers' use ofconnection services, etc.

On the basis of the stored information, the management unit may offer asubscriber information on advertisement delivery time, response status(opened or not, questions answered or not, etc.), the beginning of amonitoring period, time of the next refill, the amount of next refill(for example how much free service time the subscriber earned in themonitoring period and how much he or she inherits from the previousperiod), etc. The arrangement includes an advertisement campaign system304 which may deliver advertisement campaign material directly to acellular infrastructure to be sent to user devices or it conveys thematerial to another unit for delivery.

The advertisement campaign system also includes an action counter 306which counts advertisement message actions, such as opened messages,performed by subscribers.

In the following, an example further clarifying an embodiment of themethod for managing a subscriber connection and the exemplaryarrangement of FIG. 3 are explained. Numerical examples are depictedonly for clarity and they do not limit the scope of protection. A newsubscriber is granted 100 minutes of free talk time to be used within 28days. A starting date and an expiry date are stored in a database 308.In order to limit business risk, a scheduled refill is set to be 100minutes/4=25 minutes. The division parameter is typically stored in thedatabase 308.

The subscriber starts using the granted free talk time, and receivesadvertisements. When the advertisements are opened, an action counter306 informs of it to a refill block 312. At the end of a period of 7days, the refill block grants a refill to the subscriber connection. Thesize of the refill typically depends on different parameters, such asthe number of opened advertisements, level of activity (questionsanswered or not, commodities bought or not), etc. It should be noticedthat in the embodiment, the refill block also carries out the firstconnection service grant when the subscriber connection is taken intouse.

Further, the refill block 312 may inform the billing system 300 on theamount of service connection grant. The billing system may in turninform the analyzer 310 about the status of a subscriber connection,such as the amount of used services (talk time, sent messages, etc.) andtheir costs.

Assuming a subscriber only used 10 minutes of the grant in a firstmonitoring period, for instance a week, the refill combined with freetalk time saved from the first week, makes the total free talk time fora second period to be 35 minutes. Another option is that the unused talktime is not transferred to a following monitoring period.

The second monitoring period starts with 35 minutes of free talk time.The subscriber does not open any of the conveyed advertisements andconsumes 5 minutes of the free talk time. At the end of the secondmonitoring period, the refill is 0 minutes. Thus, two options areprovided: the system allows the subscriber to use his or her remainingtalk time or the talk time for a following monitoring period isdiminished.

In this example, the subscriber is allowed to use the remaining 30minutes of talk time in a third period. The subscriber opens alladvertisements conveyed to him or her and consumes 29 minutes of thetalk time. Hence, a refill for a fourth period is 25 minutes.

The fourth period begins with 26 minutes of talk time. The subscriberconsumes 23 minutes and opens half of the advertisements conveyed to himor her.

A fifth period begins. On the basis of a business agreement made withthe subscriber and historical data on his or her advertisement receivingbehaviour during the monitoring period of 28 days and maybe also earliercollected data the subscriber is either granted talk time of full 25minutes or, since he or she did not open the advertisements conveyed tohim or her last week, only a part of it, for instance 12.5 minutes forthe second period. The unused talk time could also be transferred to thefollowing period.

As can be seen, a longer monitoring period may be divided into shortermonitoring periods, or there could be only one longer monitoring period.

Account information is readable in an analyzer 310. The analyzercalculates the size of a refill on the basis of used talk time, forinstance. The analyzer may also be used to cancel unused talk time, togrant extra refills, etc. Additionally, the analyzer may be used forweighting advertisements differently, thus enabling adjustment of thesize of refills.

The system is also usable for providing video services or games forsubscribers in a similar manner. In the case of games, the system mayprovide a higher level or an improved version of a game as a recompensefor receiving behaviour.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a management unit. The management unitis typically a server which may include input/output interfaces 400 toreceive and transmit information. The server typically also includes oris connected to a database 308. The core of the server is usually amicroprocessor 402. In the exemplary management unit, the functionalityof an analyzer and a refill block may be integrated into a samemicroprocessor or they may be separate processors. A subscriber or athird party may also use the input/output interfaces of the managementunit to convey information on a granted service balance, i.e. how muchof a service grant the subscriber has used and how much he or she hasleft thereof. Further, the subscriber may be offered statisticalinformation on his receiving behaviour and its influence on furtherconnection service grants.

Embodiments of the method for managing a subscriber connection may beimplemented by using a computer program. The program may grantconnection services to the subscriber connection, monitor receivingbehaviour concerning messages conveyed to the subscriber connection andcontrol further connection service grant to the subscriber connection onthe basis of the receiving behaviour.

The computer program may be stored on a computer program distributionmedium readable by a computer or a processor. The computer programmedium may be, for example but not limited to, an electric, magnetic,optical, infrared or semiconductor system, device or transmissionmedium. The computer program medium may include at least one of thefollowing media: a computer readable medium, a program storage medium, arecord medium, a computer readable memory, a random access memory, anerasable programmable read-only memory, a computer readable softwaredistribution package, a computer readable signal, a computer readabletelecommunications signal, computer readable printed matter, and acomputer readable compressed software package.

Even though the invention has been described above with reference to anexample according to the accompanying drawings, it is clear that theinvention is not restricted thereto but it can be modified in severalways within the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A computer implemented method comprising:initially providing, by a processor, subsidized connection services to asubscriber, the connection services being a connection service typeselected from a group consisting of talk time, messages, data connectionusage of certain amount of data, free content services, televisioncontent, videos, music, applications, games, wireless applicationprotocols pages, internet pages, ring tones, and wall papers; sending,by the processor, at least a first advertising message and a secondadvertising message to the subscriber during a monitoring period inwhich the subscriber is making use of the subsidized connectionservices, wherein the first advertising message is in a first messagingformat and the second advertising message is in a second messagingformat, different than the first messaging format; analyzing, by theprocessor, during the monitoring period, reception behavior of thesubscriber with respect to the first advertising message and the secondadvertising message to result in an analysis, wherein reception behavioris based on the subscriber performing predetermined actions in relationto the first advertising message and the second advertising message;determining, by the processor, based on the analysis, that thesubscriber adequately performed predetermined actions in relation to thefirst advertising message; and granting, by the processor, additionalsubsidized connection services based on the analysis, wherein theconnection service type of the additional subsidized connection servicesis selected based on the first messaging format.
 2. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the amount of additionalsubsidized connection services is variable depending on at least one of:speed of response, type of campaign, type of response, type of customer,historical data on the reception behavior of a subscriber, type ofmessage, completeness of response, performance of a purchasing event anda forwarding a message.
 3. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein conditions for granting additional subscriber connections aredetermined before an advertisement campaign takes place.
 4. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined actions includeat least one of: opening, viewing or forwarding messages, answeringqueries, purchasing an item, clicking on an advertisement, or completinga predetermined task.
 5. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein the connection service type of additional subsidized connectionservices depends on how a subscriber has used previous subsidizedconnection services.
 6. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein analyzing reception behavior is based on a use of subscriberidentity codes and marketing identity codes, when both the subscriberand a message successfully delivered are identifiable.
 7. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, wherein the first advertising message andthe second advertising message have no effect on the initially providedsubsidized connection services.
 8. A system comprising: a processor; anda memory containing instruction that, when executed, cause the processorto: initially provide subsidized connection services to a subscriber,the connection services being a connection service type selected from agroup consisting of talk time, messages, data connection usage ofcertain amount of data, free content services, television content,videos, music, applications, games, wireless application protocolspages, internet pages, ring tones, and wall papers; send at least afirst message and a second message to the subscriber during a monitoringperiod in which the subscriber is making use of the subsidizedconnection services, wherein the first advertising message is in a firstmessaging format and the second advertising message is in a secondmessaging format, different than the first messaging format; analyze,during the monitoring period, reception behavior of the subscriber withrespect to the first advertising message and the second advertisingmessage to result in an analysis, and grant additional subsidizedconnection services based on the analysis, wherein reception behavior isbased on the subscriber performing predetermined actions in relation tothe first advertising message and the second advertising message;determine, based on the analysis, that the subscriber adequatelypreformed predetermined actions in relation to the first advertisingmessage; and grant additional subsidized connection services based onthe analysis, wherein the connection service type of the additionalsubsidized connection services is selected based on the first messagingformat.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the amount of additionalsubsidized connection services is variable depending on at least one of:speed of response, type of campaign, type of response, type of customer,historical data on the reception behavior of a subscriber, type ofmessage, completeness of response, performance of a purchasing event andforwarding a message.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein conditions forgranting additional subscriber connections are determined before anadvertisement campaign takes place.
 11. The system of claim 8, whereinthe predetermined actions include at least one of: opening, viewing orforwarding messages, answering queries, purchasing an item, clicking onan advertisement, or completing a predetermined task.
 12. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the connection service type of additional subsidizedconnection services depends on how a subscriber has used previoussubsidized connection services.
 13. The system of claim 8, whereinanalyzing reception behavior is based on a use of subscriber identitycodes and marketing identity codes, when both the subscriber and amessage successfully delivered are identifiable.
 14. The system of claim8, wherein the first advertising message and the second advertisingmessage have no effect on the initially provided subsidized connectionservices.